I love sports and I can’t get enough of the web, so I’m naturally a regular visitor to ESPN.com. In this post I’d like to share my likes and dislikes of the site.
I like…
The persistent navigation gives you access to every section of the site with one click, and it’s only 28 pixels wide.
The stunning imagery compliments the journalism perfectly, and creates an aesthetic appeal, which keeps me coming back to ESPN over the dozens of other sites I can get scores and analysis from.
ESPN’s video features (ESPN Motion, and ESPN 360) keep improving, which illustrates to me that the company understands the future of the web, and its place in it.
The Spotlight feature. This dynamically refreshing feature cycles through a series of ‘hot topics’. Usually at least one of the topics piques my interest, or at least my curiosity. (And more often than not, it’s the imagery that pulls me in).
The news headlines on the right hand side of each page give me a nice at-a-glance overview of the day’s happenings in each sport.
The Flash generated polling. I’m almost always intrigued by the poll questions on the site, and I love looking at the interactive results pages, which provide you with a state-by-state breakdown of the results.
The interactivity with the offline world. Features such as chats with players, question and answer sessions with analysts and coaches, and the ability to vote for magazine and television coverage make me feel like an active participant, not just a passive information gatherer.
Gamecast, which is a program that plays in a browser window, allows you to follow any live game in major sports around the globe. Besides being almost real time, Gamecast gives you access to a depth of information about the current situation in the game (player at-bat, Goal scored, etc.) than you cannot get from any other medium. It’s a great use of the web, and a precursor to some of the things to come as sports programming as TV and the Internet merge.
The section specific background images tell you instantly and beautifully what section you’re in by depicting the playing surface of the sport.
The NFL drive charts, which graphically all of a game’s possessions, including where and how they ended, how many plays they took, and how long they lasted in a concise interactive format.
The wide format on the home screen takes nice advantage of the ubiquity of higher resolution monitors.
I dislike…
The video on the home page plays automatically. If I want to watch one of the segments, I’ll press the play button. I don’t like the distraction, or having to turn off my computer’s volume every time I go to the site.
The ads. I guess that’s how large content sites now work, but I don’t have to like it. Especially annoying are the ones that require you to click a link just to skip the ad and go to the home page.
The site is slow to load. ESPN has obviously made a choice in favor of glitz and glamour, and I agree with that choice. However there are times when the home page is slow to load on even my cable connection, and I won’t be dialing up to ESPN.com anytime soon.
My ESPN—a personalized sports portal—is awkward to use and unattractive. Although it has potential, I prefer the home page, even if it means additional clicks to get the info I want.
And finally…not enough Hockey! This is probably more of a complaint about sports interest and coverage in the US in general, but I wish I could find more hockey on the front page.
